Kathmandu, Jan.1:Five of the eight Nepalese passengers, who were released along with other hostages from the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, returned home today. Hit Kumari Shrestha, Gajendra Tamrakar, Rojina Pathak, and Sanjaya Dhital arrived here at around five p.m. by RNAC’s scheduled flight while Roshan Dahal reached here at around 11:00 p.m. by another scheduled flight of the national flag carrier.
After waiting for more than a couple of hours at the Tribhuvan International Airport, family members, relatives and friends heartily received the Nepalese passengers. The kith and kin of the Nepalese, who remained hostages in the IC 814 for eight days, were all tears and smiles when they finally saw their beloved ones coming back.
Upon his arrival at the airport, Gajendra Man Tamrakar, one of Nepalese passengers on board of the IC 814, distributed press-releases denouncing the baseless accusation made against him by some sections of the Indian media.
Stating that the Indian media had charged baseless allegations against him, he demanded that the government take stern action against Zee News Channel that had alleged him as one of the five hijackers of the IC 814.
The Indian airliner was hijacked in the Indian airspace a little above half an hour after it took off around 4:30 p.m. from the TIA on December 24. The New Delhi bound plane, with 178 passengers and 11 crew members, was initially diverted to Lahore in Pakistan where it was denied landing. The airplane then flew back to Amritsar in India where one of the passengers was killed while the aircraft was being refuelled. After that, hijackers made the plane land at Lahore airport despite the absence of runway lights.
Still continuing its flight eastward, the Airbus landed in the Dubai airport at around two a.m. on Saturday from where it flew to Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan where it remained grounded till yesterday afternoon when hijackers released all 155 hostages in exchange of three militants and a cleric freed by the Indian government.
Earlier, hijackers had released some women, children and a male passenger in Dubai airport.